Anonymous advertisements

[Coldicote]

It is not unusual to have leaflets through the door advertising services such as decorating, household repairs, fixing shelves, lawn mowing, etc. All too often they give just a mobile phone number, but no name, address, or number that can be checked in a directory. Maybe some are genuine, but I take exception to this anonymity from a security point of view. What do others think about it? Is there a way of identifying someone from a mobile phone number?

[sara3]

no. personally I'd never leave someone to do work in my house, or costing a lot of money, if I only had a mobile number.

[Sandy-Wroe]

If it was a pay as you go phone then I think not.
If you got one of these people to do some work for you and they made a mess of the job there'd be no way to get back to them. I'd prefer to get someone from yellow Pages, or the like.

[wiltsman]

Just ignore these leaflets. Also, even if someone advertises in Yellow Pages, it doesn't necessarily mean they are first class trademen.

Have a word with friends and neighbours if you need work doing. They will often be able to give you a personal recommendation for someone who has done a good job for them.

If you subscribe to Which? magazine, they now run an online service at no extra cost. It's called Which? Local, where you can find tradesmen and services recommended by fellow contributors.

I used it when looking to have some bodywork repairs done to my car. I managed to save over £600 compared to a quote given by a company I chose out of the phone book. The result was a perfect job at a great price.